Researching a family tree is never an easy task, the time taken to gather information and photographs can take many hours of looking through files, census reports and scouring the internet.
This has been particularly the case with the Wilkin Family more than any other family name we have been researching in our tree.
We have for a long time been concerned that our Website was missing a page dedicated to this important side of our family and we apologise for the delay in making this so.
While we had photographs and some information on the Wilkin Family we could not get confirmation that our records were indeed correct and we were missing vital links to prove our research. We also could not gather enough information to produce an accurate and informed page for the Wilkin Family.
As with all our family research the searching of records, census reports and visits to Library's continues and any further information obtained will be updated here on this page.
For now we are pleased to be able to present the first page on our website dedicated to the Wilkin Family.

The Wilkin Family link to us firstly by the marriage of Pauline Wilkin and Derek Melton, however, it is important to state that the link also ties in with the marriage of Linda Wilkin and Roy Melton.

Linda being Pauline's Sister and Roy being Derek's Brother, a case of two brothers marrying two sisters.
Not the first time this has happened in our family.

The Family Tree So Far.

We start in descending order:
1869 Agnes Kathleen Wilkin was born in Norwich Norfolk.
In 1871 the census report shows Agnes aged 1 living in Bedford Street Norwich with Parents Frederick and Mary Anne Wilkin. Frederick Wilkin is listed at this time as being as an Auctioneers assistant....and get this...he had a servant.
Now here is a strange thing:
The census report of 1881 shows Agnes living with Frederick and Mary Anne Wilkin but suddenly they have become her Grandparents !!....now is this a mistake on the report?..or were Frederick and Mary Anne indeed here grandparents...if so what happened to her parents?....Very Strange!
The 1901 census shows Agnes living in Norwich as a Widow.
Agnes died in 1926 in Norwich.

Since writing this page we have discovered some remarkable information on Agnes.
Despite having five children we have never been able to find any marriage details on Agnes.
It seems that by further contact with members of the Wilkin family that can remember its seems that Agnes did not marry!
The fact that she had five children out of wedlock is very surprising given the opinion of women who had illegitimate children was, safe to say, not good around those times.
We can now work out that Agnes was indeed born a Wilkin and did not become a Wilkin through marriage. We believe that the reason she was declared a widow on the 1901 census was to cover up this fact.

It is worth remembering that census taken all those years ago were far from accurate, they were taken by a local council official armed with pencil and note pad and he jotted down whatever he was told with no proof that what he was told was actually true.

Now here is the really remarkable thing, if the above is true and Agnes was born a Wilkin and did not marry, that means that had she of married , she would have taken the name of her husband, this would then have meant that all her children, grandchildren and all subsequent children born after would not have been Wilkin's at all but would all have gone by another surname...now that's amazing because if this is indeed true we would not be researching the Wilkin Family at all as there would not be anybody with that surname in our family. We are now awaiting a copy of Agnes birth certificate, when it arrives it will hopefully lay to rest who her parents actually were.

Updated 10 December 08

The Birth certificate of Agnes has arrived and contains some interesting information.
Agnes Wilkin was born on the 4th December 1869. Her Mother was Catherine Wilkin.
Yes Wilkin ! her birth surname. No Father is listed on the birth certificate and as Catherine is listed as a Wilkin it means that not only did Agnes have five children out of Wedlock...her Mother Catherine...had Agnes out of wedlock too.
This now explains why Frederick and Mary Wilkin were at first in the 1871 census reported as being the parents of Agnes only for ten years later in the next census taken they suddenly became her Grandparents.

In truth they were indeed her Grandparents and we believe that the only reason they were listed as Agnes's parents ten years earlier was to cover up the fact that Agnes was an illegitimate child born to their Daughter Catherine when she was 19yrs old.
The census taken ten years after they classed themselves as her parents was more accurate than any previous census and it probably meant that they could no longer report what was really not the truth.

Now that we have discovered who was the correct mother of Agnes we are now searching to find if Catherine had anymore children ( brothers or sisters to Agnes). If she did there may be a Fathers name on their birth certificates as she may have married after having Agnes. The fact remains at this moment though, that Agnes may not have truly known who her Father was, it may possibly be that all of Agnes's children may also not have know who their Father was also....Sadly we may not ever know if they did or not.

The search continues....